st is phenotypic behavior. In accordance with this “phenotypic” factor, transracial adoption studies provide evidence against the heritability of racial differences in IQ. For example, in the well known Minnesota Adoption Study, by age 17, adopted children with two White biological parents had an average IQ of 106, adopted children withone White and one Black biological parent had an average IQ of 99 andadopted children with two Black biological parents had an average IQ of 89(Rushton, 1997). Here, environment obviously played a grand role in thesechildren’s IQ’s. To put it in a nutshell, the notion that group differences inaverage IQ are due to differences in genes for intelligence is hard to prove byempirical evidence. In my opinion, the emphasis on heritability in the race-IQdebate is purely a red herring promoted by those who do not understand theproper use of the empirical data and statistics. Through this analysis, one cansee that this question is not one that can be easily answered. Trying to seekeasy “scientific” solutions to hard to solve social debates can create greatcontroversies. But it is only with continuous research, experimentation andknowledge that we, as a society, can slowly move towards these answers.My answer to the originally posed question, “Is there a racial difference inintelligence,” is Yes. I do not feel that there is much argument across theboard about that. Reviewing the research I found, it is absolutelyuncontestable that there is not a consistent difference in test-score meansbetween races. However, the origin of this difference is unclear. Genetics?Environment? A combination of these two factors? Each researcher probablywill have a different answer. Dependant upon their empirical research andown innate biases, which I feel due tend to inhibit researchers results, eachexperimenter has their own opinion. By the evidence I have seen and theempirical data prese...
